DAN HODGES: I've voted Labour for 30 years. But on June 8, I MUST vote for Mrs May

As MPs packed into the Strangers’ Bar at Westminster on Tuesday evening, still trying to come to terms with Theresa May’s stunning Election announcement, one Labour veteran turned ruefully to his colleague and announced: ‘That’s it for me. I won’t be standing.’ ‘Why not?’ asked his startled friend. ‘Because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to vote for myself,’ he replied.

This is how the 2017 campaign begins – not with the wider electorate turning their backs on Labour, or even longstanding supporters turning their backs on the party, but with Labour MPs turning their backs on themselves.

I’ve voted Labour in every General Election since 1987. In five of those campaigns I worked for the party. But on June 8 I’ll be voting for Mrs May. To some this is treason, a betrayal of the party I once professed to love. I’m also supposedly subverting parliamentary democracy. In fact, this entire Election is being painted as an assault on democracy.

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MPs tried to come to terms with Theresa May's election announcement on Tuesday while packing themselves into Strangers' Bar in the House of Commons

‘Theresa May is a disgrace,’ raged Chuka Umunna after the Prime Minister’s announcement. ‘She called an Election because she rejects the idea of an opposition in our democracy. We are not some dictatorship.’

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Let’s process that for a second. By asking the British people to choose their Government in a free and fair Election, Labour MPs now believe Mrs May has joined the ranks of Stalin, Pinochet and Pol Pot.

We will hear this argument a lot in the coming weeks: ‘We need an effective opposition. Jeremy Corbyn must not be crushed. Our democracy will suffer.’

No. The opposite needs to happen. For our democracy to be protected, Mr Corbyn does indeed need to be crushed. That is because democracy only works if our politicians and parties are held to account by the people. There must be causality. Their words and actions must carry consequences.

Labour is in this mess precisely because it does not believe it should be held accountable. It believes the British people – in particular the working class – owe it a living. ‘It doesn’t matter what we say or do,’ the party has smugly told itself year after year. ‘Working people will still back us. Maybe not enough to form a Government, but we can still luxuriate in opposition.’

To survive and flourish, political parties need to put in the hard graft. They need to challenge themselves. Go out among those they want to represent, find out what their hopes, fears and aspirations are, then reflect them.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has no wish to reflect the aspirations of the people. It merely wants to sponge off them. ‘Oh God, it’s Election time. Let’s slap on a red rosette, spout some rubbish about 24 hours to save the NHS and the saps will vote for us again.’ This time they won’t. And they shouldn’t.

There has not been an Election campaign in my lifetime where a major political party has treated the electorate with such contempt. In the days to come, as the Conservative war machine cranks into life, the old tropes will be trotted out. ‘They’re smearing Jeremy!’ his acolytes will wail.

Well, these are not smears. This is the man who would make Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent redundant through his pledge never to use it; withdraw British troops from protecting our European allies; provide the Islamic State butchers with an effective safe haven in Iraq and Syria; increase the debt by £500 billion on infrastructure spending alone; and brand as rich families in London and the South East getting by on £70,000, and hike up their taxes.

Labour will not change until it is forced to change and only the voters can do that

Over the past couple of years, people have become desensitised to this lunacy, to the extent that when Labour dispatches Emily Thornberry, Sir Keir Starmer and Baroness Chakrabarti to lecture the nation about ‘elites’, it barely warrants a mention.

Rock is sticky for George

George Osborne’s decision to step back from frontline politics has been attributed to his new role editing the London Evening Standard.

But I’m told the deciding factor was the rumbling discontent over his £650,000-a-year BlackRock consultancy.

‘George decided it was a bad look,’ a friend tells me. ‘He didn’t think he could be seen earning that sort of money while still an MP.’

Clearly the optics still matter to the ex-Chancellor.

Don’t breathe too easily, Mrs May.

But it’s vital we do not become desensitised. Labour has been warned time and time and time again about the need for fiscal competence, and about the need to address mounting public concern over issues such as national security, welfare and immigration. And its response has been to scream ‘Tory scum!’ then troop off to the cinema to watch a Ken Loach film.

Labour will not change until it is forced to change. And the only people who can force it to change now are the voters.

And consider this. Imagine if the British people were to stay their hand; that instead of rewarding Mrs May with a thumping majority, she was returned with a majority of only 20 or 30. The country would be plunged into political purgatory, without effective opposition or effective government.

On Thursday I spoke to a long-standing Corbyn supporter. ‘He’s like a mollusc,’ he said. ‘He’ll try to cling on even if he loses.’ His malign grip on Labour – and British politics – must be prised away. And there is only one way to do it.

On June 8, Labour must face its reckoning. Jeremy Corbyn must be crushed.

CAMPAIGN CAMERA: Nicola Sturgeon's new low for politics

This may be an apt position for someone who wants a new referendum that could bring the country to its knees.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is either getting the lowdown on what voters want – or providing a metaphor for her policies: as flawed as she is floored.

The SNP leader was taking a breather while on the campaign trail, wearing a jacket that seems to be modelled on the bluecoats of Pontins holiday camps. Hi-de-Hi?

More like Low-de-Low...

Nicola Sturgeon's latest pose is appropriate for someone looking to bring the country to is knees

The MoS seat-o-meter

Theresa May called the Election to win a big majority. Last week’s polls put the Tories on 44 per cent, meaning they could win their biggest share of the popular vote since Mrs Thatcher’s spectacular victory in 1983.

Our latest MoS seat-o-meter, put together with the help of John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, shows that a 104-seat majority looks possible.

But our Survation poll today shows that may be cut to just 46.

Labour is at risk of suffering its worst defeat since the 1930s and Jeremy Corbyn is on course to win just 188 seats.

Labour is at risk of winning just 188 seats - the worst defeat for Labour since the 1930s

As Labour MPs filed through the division lobbies to trigger the Election, parallels were drawn with turkeys and Christmas.

But one party veteran preferred an historic analogy. ‘It was like signing Charles I’s death warrant.

'We all had to put our signatures down so we would all bear responsibility.

'And look what happened to that lot.

'They were all executed by Charles II.’

There was sadness in Labour ranks when Alan Johnson announced his retirement.

But activists should not despair.

Apprentice winner and TV presenter Michelle Dewberry has confided to her Twitter followers: 'Now that we've lost our MP #AlanJohnson maybe I should stand & represent the area that I love - Hull West (or West Hull as it is to us!).'

Run, Michelle, run!

Michelle Dewberry announced she might run for parliament now Alan Johnson has stood down